It's Official: Astros to AL for 2013

[Party]

"I wanted to realign things about 13 or 14 years ago," Selig said. "And unfortunately Kansas City didn't want to move, and so then my old team, Milwaukee, moved and it has worked out great. Realignment is something that in the future I really want to look at particularly before I leave."

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...s_mlb&c_id=mlb

I propose:

ALE: NYY, BOS, TB, BAL, TOR
ALC: MIN, DET, CHW, CLE, KC
ALW: OAK, SEA, LAA, ARZ
One Wild Card

NLE: NYM, WSH, PHI, PIT
NLS: ATL, FLA, HOU, CIN
NLC: CHC, TEX, STL, MIL
NLW: SD, LAD, COL, SF

Texas and Arizona would have to agree to switch leagues. Each team has absolute veto power if any realignment forces them to switch leagues. KC vetoed a move to the NL in 1997.

I don't think we'll see a Eastern/Western league set-up as Selig originally proposed prior to the 1998 season.

[Bobbob1313]

Being in a division with Hou and Cin would be awesome.

Except for 8 PM start times.

[Branch]

If Selig were to re-align, why not even out the leagues and move one team to the AL? The 14-16 division has always bothered me for nitpicky reasons.

[Party]

You can't have an odd number of teams because there is no season-long interleague play.

One team in each league would have three days off.

[Branch]

Damnit. I propose the AL expand by two, in that case. San Antonio and Utah to the AL West.
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Or other cities, those were just the first two that came to mind.

[Madman81]

Being in a division with Hou and Cin would be awesome.

Except for 8 PM start times.

What does that have to do with Cin?

[Bobbob1313]

Is Cincinnatti not in the Central Time Zone?

[Party]

Nope.

[Beef]

:-)

[Bobbob1313]

Guess not. Huh, shows what I know.

[Party]

Going back to the 15 teams leagues, it makes sense if you expand interleague play. It would eliminate the concerns of the current format being unfair for those teams slated to play weaker/stronger divisions. It also increases the number of big draw teams for each league. Kansas City and Miami would see New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Los Angeles all in one year.

[Madman81]

Is Cincinnatti not in the Central Time Zone?

Don't spell it like a stupid fuck on purpose

[Beef]

ehe Madman hates that

[Todd]

Why not just do away with interleague play? The 16-14 format really doesnt bother me though.

[emkayseven]

they'll never do away with interleague...as much as I loathe it, it still generates interest and money among fans.

Festa, in your scenario I doubt Texas moves for several reasons: 1) the two Texas teams would be in the same league which doesn't happen (Chicago, LA, New York), and 2) generally teams that switch should either not have a strong history or have some kind of "reason" to switch. Milwaukee's heritage was in the NL with the Braves having been there before the Brewers.

I think the Nationals would be a prime candidate to switch. For some reason they "feel" like an AL team, don't have a long history (since they kind of cut ties with Montreal) and don't have enough fans to piss people off. I think Arizona is a good candidate as well.

I also wouldn't anticipate that the leagues would have a different number of divisions, nor that they'd go back to having 4 playoffs teams as you're proposing since they're expanding to 5 ASAP. That's the point of no return, no one is going to shrink the playoff system.

I think what's behind this is an attempt to break up Boston and New York which would be criminal, I think. But breaking them up would almost assure that both make the playoffs every year, which means more money for the league. In the end I'd expect nothing to come of this.